Before the World Trade Center

Over the past week, we’ve been reflecting on the attacks of 9/11 and the decade that followed. This selection of photographs proposes a longer historical view of Lower Manhattan. Bordered by present-day Barclay Street to the North, Broadway to the East, and West Street to the West, the neighborhood where the Twin Towers once stood has a rich photographic history. These images, culled from numerous historical archives, offer a decade-by-decade glimpse into the neighborhood that preceded, then framed, the World Trade Center: New Yorkers strolling on the Battery at the turn of the century; Washington Market, once one of the city’s most important wholesalers; and Radio Row, the electronics district that was displaced for the construction of the towers. Have a look.